A former McComb city employee claims he was terminated in an effort to conceal an alleged “inappropriate expenditure of city funds” in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Pike County Circuit Court.
The suit, filed by former McComb deputy public works director Quordiniah Lockley, seeks $600,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from the city.
The city, Mayor Zach Patterson, the board of selectmen and former city administrator Dr. Jim Storer are named as defendants.
Lockley claims a breach of an implied contract under the city’s written policies and procedures, wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of covenant, and misfeasance and/or malfeasance.
According to the suit, which gives one side of the legal argument, Lockley was terminated on Aug. 22, 2008, as part of a series of layoffs.
He claims city officials first said he was terminated because of a poor employee evaluation, then later said he was terminated because of layoffs, which Lockley said the board of selectmen never approved.
Lockley said he was hired as deputy public works director on Dec. 12, 2001, and never “received a reprimand, warning, complaint, or any disciplinary or negative evaluation, and was a diligent, good and faithful employee who received multiple raises during his employment with the city of McComb.”
According to the suit, Storer said during an interview with the Enterprise-Journal last year that Lockley was terminated because of a poor evaluation. Storer later told the newspaper that Lockley’s performance had not been evaluated.
Storer said in an article published Aug. 31, 2008, that he did not dispute Lockley’s performance but said the city needed to reduce employment to save money.
He said in the article that he believed Lockley was considered a good employee, adding that Lockley was faithful to the city and did his job.
Concerning the evaluation, Storer said last year, “I guess I did not state accurately at the board meeting (announcing the layoffs) and made the comment that it was based on performance evaluation. … Also, it was looking at what jobs could be assumed by others.”
According to the suit, Lockley claims that Storer and Patterson allegedly “caused dedicated public works water funds to be spent for other known and unknown city purposes,” without elaborating.
Lockley alleges that he and other employees were laid off so their salaries “could be used to replace ‘water’ funds before the inappropriate expenditures were discovered by state and local auditors.”
He also claims selectmen were told about the layoffs but never approved them and took no action to correct the problem.
Lockley was among 14 city employees laid off in August 2008. On Oct. 30, he sent a letter to Patterson claiming wrongful termination and notifying the city that he intended to sue over his termination. A notice of intent to sue dated Nov. 18 was served on Storer, according to a document attached to the lawsuit.
Since his termination, Lockley’s name has been mentioned several times by selectmen as a candidate for interim city administrator, but Patterson has refused to consider him.
